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Don't worry Hayden Island neighborhood, this is only a test: Portland City Hall Roundup

Police shooting in SW Portland

An early-morning police shooting on Southwest Lobelia Street in April included a "failure" of the city's emergency notification system to alert many neighbors of an armed man on the loose (Maxine Bernstein/The Oregonian)

It's just a drill, part of the city's annual test of a targeted emergency alert system that's been marred by problems in the past.

The system targets landline phone lines, plus any cell phone or emails that are submitted to the free Public Alerts notification system.

"This is an opportunity to raise awareness," said Dan Douthit, public information officer for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. The city is always looking to promote the public alerts system, because you have to actively sign up to receive notifications if you don't have a landline telephone.

The system currently has 21,000 cell phones and other devices (additional landlines, phones or emails) signed up. There are 364,000 landlines in the database, Douthit said.

If it seems like you've heard a lot about the public alerts system this year, you have.

Portland relied on the clunky system in two high-profile events to varying degrees of success.

In April, officials activated the system to notify residents of an armed and dangerous man on the loose in Southwest Portland. But many neighbors complained that they either received no notice of the deadly shooting during the early morning hours or received a phone call only after the man was arrested.

City officials called it a "failure" and quickly blamed the emergency notification contractor, FirstCall. The contractor fired back, saying the issues were strictly user error. But PBEM director Carmen Merlo said she had a "growing lack of confidence" in the contractor.

During the budget process in June, the City Council approved a $100,000 request to help find a new company.

In May, the city issued a citywide boil water notice in the E. coli scare that drew national attention. When notifying the entire city, the system takes upwards of five hours to cycle through all the phone calls, long after the city issued a press release.

Douthit said PBEM conducts weekly tests of the alerts system in-house, and elects to send out public tests just once a year. "We want to avoid public fatigue of being over-messaged," he said.

PBEM is in the process of extending its contract with FirstCall, the contractor providing services to Multnomah County and city since 2010, until late 2015 to make sure there's no gap in service as the agency searches for a new company.

Emergency officials are still battling public confusion about how the system works and when it's deployed. Again, you have to actively sign up.

But PBEM does have the capability of sending out an alert that reaches all cell phone towers and nearby users in Multnomah County.

The boil water alert in May led to 3,000 additional devices registering with the free system, Douthit said.

September is National Preparedness month, Douthit said. The bureau has free public classes about earthquake preparedness on Sept. 17 and 18 at the Oregon Convention Center. Here's a link to the registration page.